In recent years, small-sized formation and high function formation of an electronic apparatus such as a portable telephone are progressed rapidly, and in accordance therewith, the circuit of such electronic apparatus is constituted in a high density and withstand voltage thereof is reduced. Therefore, destruction of an electric circuit provided inside of an apparatus by an electrostatic pulse generated when the human body and a terminal of the electronic apparatus are brought into contact with each other is increased. As a countermeasure against such an electrostatic pulse, there is carried out a method of restraining a voltage applied to the electric circuit of the electronic apparatus bypassing static electricity by providing a multilayer chip varistor between a line through which static electricity is inputted and the ground. An example of a multilayer chip varistor used in a countermeasure against the electrostatic pulse is disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. H08-31616.
A static electricity countermeasure component (hereinafter, referred to as component) of a background art will be explained in reference to FIG. 9 as follows. FIG. 9 is a sectional view of a multilayer chip varistor (hereinafter, referred to as MLCV). MLCV includes varistor layer 2 having inner electrode 1 and terminal 3 connected to inner electrode 1 at an end face of varistor layer 2. Protecting layers 4 are provided at upper and lower faces of varistor layer 2.
According to MLCV of the background art, crack or chipping is liable to be brought about unless a thickness to some degree is ensured in order to satisfy a physical strength of varistor layer 2. As a result, a problem that thin-sized formation of MLCV is difficult is posed. For example, in a case of MLCV having a length of about 1.25 mm, a width of about 2.0 mm, a thickness equal to or larger than about 0.5 mm is needed. When the thickness is thinned further, the length and the width need to be reduced. Therefore, it is difficult to achieve thin-sized formation while maintaining a varistor characteristic against a small surge voltage.